Twenty Thousand Pets

We got good news and bad news.

The good news is that our little Brownie (pictured) is doing much better now. She used to have really bad coordination problems but recently has greatly improved. She can even properly balance on the wooden blocks now. She still gets hand fed, but I’m sure it won’t be neccessary for much longer anymore.

The bad news is that I will not be able to keep pigeons anymore after our current two Brownie and Piet have left. The reason is a chronic allergy against bird proteins that was recently diagnosed for me. At the end of 2017 I started to have increasing problems with my breathing which eventually got quite severe. I got tested for quite a few things and was looking for answers for many weeks. I am still not sure about all aspects and will continue to find our more, but right now all evidence points to this.

After the diagnosis and now with the medication my breathing has improved a lot, but in order to avoid serious long term complications, I’m forced to give up chronic exposure to birds and therefore give up Twenty Thousand Pets. Having to do this is quite painful for me and of course, frankly, sucks for the pigeons. I will continue to involve myself in other aspects of pigeon advocacy and other animal rights activism, but an important part will now be missing for me.

Piet and Brownie currently live in our basement (don’t worry, it’s a nice room with windows) and are cared for by my partner, who is helping a lot.

Brownie

Taube mit PMV-Infektion und sehr starken neurologischen Symptomen

In foster care with us from 02.Jan.18 - ? Home: Ottensen

Piet

Taube mit PMV-Infektion, die noch nicht selbst picken kann

In foster care with us from 26.Dec.17 - ? Home: probably Winterhude Süd

Roger

Taube mit PMV-Verdacht aus dem Taubenschlag Moschee

In foster care with us from 13.Nov.17 - ? Home: Böckmannstraße/mosque

Roger was found with neurological symptoms and difficulty flying at the mosque dovecote during the daily visit by one of the caretakers. We also found some other sick/dying pigeons recently, no wonder, since the dovecote is very heavily frequented nowadays* - and it’s getting close to freezing cold now. Roger is right now being tested for PMV (paramyxovirus infection), which I think he likely has. We will see how well he can cope during the next days, and whether he will start to require hand feeding for a while or not.

-

Kepler

Taube vom Steindamm mit schlimm verschnürten Füßen, wodurch mehrere Zehen abstarben

In foster care with us from 08.Nov.17 - 21.Dec.17 Home: Steindamm

Kepler was found with badly tied up feet and has lost several toes on his left foot due to that. He now needs some time to heal. We treat him with antiseptic cream.

Kenni

Taube mit Flügelbruch/-verletzung, aus einer anderen Pflegestelle übernommen

In foster care with us from 16.Oct.17 - 21.Dec.17 Home: Wilhelmsburg/Harburg

Kenni came to us from another caretaker with a wing issue. He’s staying here to heal and until we can determine whether he can be released into the city again.

This is my boy Blanka, who has been with us since July. He came to us in a very bad condition, malnourished and injured to the point of being blinded. The good news is, his injuries healed pretty well and he can see again. He retained some slight neurological issues that are hardly noticeable now. Otherwise he is active, healthy looking, aggressive, cooing at other pigeons, and looking awake and interested.

The bad news, and source of much frustration, is that this pigeon refuses to eat on his own. He *should* be coordinated enough and generally able to pick up seeds, but he just... doesn’t, at least not with any tangible results. Therefore, I have been hand feeding him pretty much every day, with occassional pauses to see if he would finally start acting like a pigeon and eat on his own. Alas, no such luck.

Mari

Taube mit etwas älterem Beinbruch, der schon etwas zusammengewachsen war, somit war es nicht mehr möglich, einen Pin einzusetzen. Das Bein ist trotzdem relativ gut verheilt.

In foster care with us from 25.Oct.17 - 21.Dec.17 Home: Winterhude (Süd)

Mari was spotted with a broken leg by a member of the pigeon club, but it took a few days to catch him. I then brought him to our vet, but it turned out that the injury was a bit older and had already started to heal. Therefore the vet couldn’t place a steady pin into the leg and just put a tight bandage on the leg, which can be seen in the photo. 

I did have to remove the bandage the next evening since it turned out to be too tight and was pinching off his toes. However, the healing process continued just fine and Mari has already regained some use of his leg. I will probably be able to release him into the city again.

Taro

Taube mit vermutlich starkem Anflugtrauma, die Verletzungen hat sie leider nicht überlebt.

In palliative care with us on 24./25.Oct.17 Home: Billstedt

Gundis

Taube mit Fußverletzung, einige Zehen mussten amputiert werden.

In foster care with us from 05.Oct.17 - 24.Oct.17 Home: Central station

Blanka

Jungtaube, die vermutlich durch traumatische Verletzung blind ist, sie wurde von Bahngleisen gerettet. Bei Aufnahme stark abgemagert und geschwächt.

In foster care with us from 17.Jul.17 - ? Home: Blankenese

This young pigeon was rescued from some train tracks. It looks like she was injured there, since she appears to be blind right now. Our vet said that she might have a chance of regaining vision in one eye after a while, if we’re lucky. As of now, she’s in a bad condition, very thin and weak. She cannot eat on her own so I hand-feed her, and give her pain meds. She also had lots of feather parasites which have been treated now. 

Serhat

PMV-Taube, die sich wieder gut erholt hat

In foster care with us from 24.May.17 - 14.Jun.17 Home: probably Altona

I got this pigeon from another caretaker in order to check out whether he was ready for the PMV station at the Steilshoop dovecote. Serhat turned out to be without any severe symptoms and could move on quite quickly. He now lives with the other recovered PMVs at the station.

Keahnu

Taube aus vorheriger Betreuung mit nachträglich aufgetretener PMV-Infektion

In foster care with us from 17.May.17 - 13.Jul.17 Home: ?

Keahnu arrived together with Cola and has basically the same story:

A pigeon from another caretaker who was infected with PMV after being housed together with a previously undiagnosed PMV carrier, when still quite young. She took a long time to learn to eat on her own and was fed with pigeon porridge by her previous caretaker, which we had to continue for a bit after she arrived with us.

Keahnu eventually moved into the PMV sanctuary “Casa Grimaud”.

Ring number: 87

Cola

Taube aus vorheriger Betreuung mit nachträglich aufgetretener PMV-Infektion

In foster care with us from 17.May.17 - 13.Jul.17 Home: ?

A pigeon from another caretaker who was infected with PMV after being housed together with a previously undiagnosed PMV carrier, when still quite young. She took a long time to learn to eat on her own and was fed with pigeon porridge by her previous caretaker, which we had to continue for a bit after she arrived with us. 

Cola eventually got ready to move into the PMV sanctuary “Casa Grimaud”.

An update on the current situation:

The good news is that as of April 12., our two local animal shelters are taking in pigeons and other birds again, after being not allowed to do so for many months due to avian influenza making the rounds in Hamburg over and over again. This is helping very much with the overall situation.

However, I have nothing but PMV pigeons whom I cannot give to the shelters. We do have a lot of progress with construction work at the Steilshoop sanctuary, where they will be hopefully soon (for real) moving to.

We currently have 8 PMV pigeons at home, most of them in seperate cages, which is quite a lot (too much) work, so I’ll be glad to have fewer to worry about soonish. This is also why I haven’t been updating the tumblr for a while now, along with some personal events that took a lot of energy.

Photos:

1. Helga, a short time guest with a wing injury who spent a weekend with us while her caretaker was travelling.

Qubit

Taube aus vorheriger Betreuung mit nachträglich aufgetretener PMV-Infektion

In foster care with us from 07.Apr.17 - 12.May.17 Home: ?

Another PMV pigeon for my collection. He came from the Steilshoop dovecote/sanctuary where he was staying due to an originally unrelated issue, and later developed PMV symptoms for unknown reasons. He can eat on his own and is doing ok.

Dorette

Taube aus vorheriger Betreuung mit nachträglich aufgetretener PMV-Infektion 

In foster care with us from 09.Apr.17 - 12.May.17 Home: ?

Another PMV pigeon for my collection. She came from the Steilshoop dovecote/sanctuary where she was staying due to an originally unrelated issue, and later developed PMV symptoms for unknown reasons. She was unable to eat enough on her own when she arrived here, so I hand-fed her for about a week. She’s doing fine now.